• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.143-153
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• 2016

Objective: The purposes of this study are to survey needs for changing accident investigation from blaming to systems approach and to briefly summarize systems-based accident analysis techniques. Background: In modern complex socio-technical systems, accidents are caused by a variety of contributing factors including human, technical, organizational, social factors, not by just a single violation or error of a specific actor, but accidents investigation used to be focused on the incorrect action of individuals. A new approach investigating causes of accidents as a symptom of a deficient system is required. Method: This study was mainly based on survey of literatures related to accidents, accidents investigation, which included academic journals, newspapers, etc. Results: This study showed that accidents investigation of Korea focusing on blaming is problematic. This was confirmed by two concepts of migration and hindsight bias frequently found in accident causation studies, and an attribute of accidents having varying causes. This was illustrated with an example of Sewol ferry capsizing accident. Representative systems-based accident analysis models including Swiss cheese model, AcciMap, HFACS, FRAM and STAMP were briefly introduced, which can be used in systematic accidents investigations. Finally, this study proposed a procedure for establishing preventive measures of accidents, which was composed of two steps: public inquiry and devising preventive measures. Conclusion: A new approach considering how safety-critical components such as technical and social elements, and their interactions lead to accidents is needed for preventing reoccurrence of similar accidents in complex socio-technical systems. Application: The results would be used as a reference or guideline when the safety relevant governmental organizations investigate accidents.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.10-19
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• 2021

Background: Traditional safety concept, which is called Safety-I, and its relevant methods and models have much contributed toward enhancing the safety of industrial systems. However, they have proved insufficient to be applied to complex socio-technical systems. As an alternative, Safety-II and resilience engineering have emerged and gained much attention for the last two decades. However, it seems that safety professionals have still difficulty understanding their fundamental concepts and methods. Accordingly, it is necessary to offer an introductory guide to them that helps safety professionals grasp them correctly in consideration of their current practices. Methods: This article firstly explains the limitations of Safety-I and how Safety-II can resolve them from the four points of view. Next, the core concepts of resilience engineering and Functional Resonance Analysis Method are described. Results: Workers' performance adjustment and performance variability due to it should be the basis for understanding human-related accidents in socio-technical systems. It should be acknowledged that successful and failed work performance have the same causes. However, they are not well considered in the traditional safety concept; in contrast, Safety-II and resilience engineering have conceptual bases and practical approaches to reflect them systematically. Conclusion: It is necessary to move from a find-and-fix and reactive approach to a proactive approach to safety management. Safety-II and resilience engineering give a set of useful concepts and methods for proactive safety management. However, if necessary, Safety-I methods need to be properly used for situations where they can still be useful as well.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.23-32
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• 2020

There has been a significant decline in the number of rail accidents in Korea since system safety management activities were introduced. Nonetheless, analyzing and preventing human error-related accidents is still an important issue in railway industry. As a railway system is increasingly automated and intelligent, the mechanism and process of an accident occurrence are more and more complicated. It is now essential to consider a variety of factors and their intricate interactions in the analysis of rail accidents. However, it has proved that traditional accident models and methods based on a linear cause-effect relationship are inadequate to analyze and to assess accidents in complex systems such as railway systems. In order to supplement the limitations of traditional safety methods, recently some systemic safety models and methods have been developed. Of those, FRAM(Functional Resonance Analysis Method) has been recognized as one of the most useful methods for analyzing accidents in complex systems. It reflects the concepts of performance adjustment and performance variability in a system, which are fundamental to understanding the processes of an accident in complex systems. This study aims to apply FRAM to the analysis of a rail accident involving human errors, which occurred recently in South Korea. Through the application of FRAM, we found that it can be a useful alternative to traditional methods in the analysis and assessment of accidents in complex systems. In addition, it was also found that FRAM can help analysts understand the interactions between functional elements of a system in a systematic manner.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2022.11a
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• pp.133-134
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• 2022

Recently, the criteria for assessing industrial accidents have been replaced by the mortality rate. It was found that the number of deaths from excavation work was the highest among construction machinery. The risk assessment is being conducted, however the industrial accident mortality rate has not decreased. Accordingly, this study aims to provide the basic for the create of a risk assessment model specialized in construction work at excavator. It provides absolute value from the risk model which is capable of delivery the probability of a disaster. In addition, we provide a relative risk model that compares the risk through scores between detailed works. The relative risk model is combined by likelihood and severity; the likelihood indicates the frequency of accidents and the severity indicates seriousness of fatal accidents. A variable that reflects the conditions of the construction site was added to the risk assessment model based on past disaster cases. And using the concepts of probability and average, the risk assessment process was quantified and used as an objective indicator. Therefore, the model is expected to reduce disasters by raising the awareness of disasters.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.59-73
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• 2007

The compensation system in industrial accident insurance is systemized with "either receiving all or no benefits at all" according to "admited or denied as an industrial accident". Therefore, they are centered on the decision as "industrial accident" or "non-industrial accident", but judging between the two is very complicated, and has inherent conflicting factors. In the early stage of industrialization, industrial accident compensation was based on the indemnity liability for employer's faults. In order to be compensated any damage, the injured worker should prove that the accident was not due to his or her faults. However it was very difficult for injured worker or his or her family to prove the employer's faults, so it was almost impossible to get compensation. Thereafter industrialization progress and improvement of workers' political status lead to conversion from principle of liability with employer's faults to principle of liability without employer's faults. In addition to that, coverage of industrial accident compensation was also expanded. This improvement strengthened the benefit payment principle of "All or Nothing". Even though the "All or Nothing" principle provokes tremendous criticism, the reason why it's difficult for industrialized countries to adopt partial compensation system, is that partial compensation system worsens the administrative hardship, therefore industrialized countries overcome the restrictions of the "All or Nothing" principle with making balance in provisions for any risk to some extent. However, in Korea because the general compensation system for covering medical cost and income loss from accidents, is not equipped, it could be possible to cause acute conflicts with regard to coverage of industrial accidents. Therefore it is required to improve the industrial accident insurance with the acceptance of the significance and logic of discriminated compensation, and create the integrated compensation system in the long run.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.1963-1968
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• 2012

In this research paper a hydraulic valve meter for the measurement of water pressure in fields was designed by using three dimensional automatic design program CATIA. And, also computational fluid dynamics was applied to the designed hydraulic valve meter in order to obtain flow distributions due to internal pressures. This analytical results will be provided as fundamental data in the development of new concepts of hydraulic valve meter and the hydraulic valve meter in development may reduce valve checking times and improve safety by preventing accidents earlier.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.22 no.52
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• pp.323-335
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• 1999

Spinal injuries are common these days and are increasing due to the increasing sports activities, auto-related accidents, and occupational incidences. Most of spinal injuries of strain and sprain are associated with trauma and resulted in loss of optimal musculoskeletal system in spinal column area. Some of these injuries requires surgical treatments. Fortunately, some people with spinal disorder are achieving outstanding results with the chiropractic care which utilizes muscle stimulation and strengthening, traction therapy, and spinal adjustments. These treatments using chiropractic table can ease pain by restoring alignment, improving mobility, and relieving pain and stiffness in neck and spinal areas. The purpose of this study was thus to gather the comprehensive information about spinal injuries, to define the specific dimensions, and to recommend functions of chiropractic table specially suited for Korean. This study was an integrated approach in applying the concepts of biomechanical correction of the musculoskeletal system. Also, this study was to utilize a knowledge of physics, ergonomics, and rehabilitation to the development of spine cure medicine.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.548-555
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• 2021

This paper outlines the basic concepts, approaches and research trends of fault diagnosis and fault tolerant control applied to industrial processes, facilities, and motor drives. The main role of fault diagnosis for industrial processes is to create effective indicators to determine the defect status of the process and then take appropriate measures against failures or hazadous accidents. The technologies of fault detection and diagnosis have been developed to determine whether a process has a trend or pattern, or whether a particular process variable is functioning normally. Firstly, data-driven based and model-based techniques were described. Secondly, fault detection and diagnosis techniques for industrial processes are described. Thirdly, passive and active fault tolerant control techniques are considered. Finally, major faults occurring in AC motor drives were listed, described their characteristics and fault diagnosis and fault tolerant control techniques are outlined for this purpose.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.400-408
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• 2019

The "fourth industrial revolution" (FIR) is an age of advanced technology based on information and communication. FIR has a more powerful impact on the economy than in the past. However, the prospects for the labor environment are uncertain. The purpose of this study is to anticipate and prepare for occupational health and safety (OHS) issues. In FIR, nonstandard employment will be common. As a result, it is difficult to receive OHS services and compensation. Excessive trust in new technologies can lead to large-scale or new forms of accidents. Global business networks will cause destruction of workers' biorhythms, some cancers, overwork, and task complexity. The social disconnection because of an independent work will be a risk for worker's mental health. The union bonds will weaken, and it will be difficult to apply standardized OHS regulations to multinational enterprises. To cope with the new OHS issues, we need to establish new concepts of "decent work" and standardize regulations, which apply to enterprises in each country, develop public health as an OHS service, monitor emerging OHS events and networks among independent workers, and nurture experts who are responsible for new OHS issues.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.83-93
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• 2021

Objectives: 'Confined space' was only defined in the Safety and Health Regulations as a place where oxygen deficiency and hydrogen sulfide must be dealt with at the time of the initial enactment (1982). The danger of fire and explosion were added in 2003. We will compare and review the regulations related to confined space work under the current safety and health rules alongside regulations in other countries and prepare a plan to improve the system through enhanced clarity and execution. Methods: In a comparison of systems for the prevention of suffocation in confined spaces in major countries (Germany, United States, Japan) different concepts of the definition of confined spaces in different countries apparently due to differences in each country's legal implementation system, accident analysis methods, the status of safety and health implementation in workplaces, the precautions against actual confined space work, and the definition of confined spaces were found to be not much different between Korea and the other foreign countries. Results: In the case of Germany and the United States, a confined space is defined as a contextual concept rather than a place, so more careful attention is needed from operators or enclosed space managers as it is often necessary to judge the actual workplace. In the case of Korea and Japan, the interior of the place is mainly defined as a place, especially in the case of Japan, which concentrates on oxygen deficiency and hydrogen sulfide poisoning. Conclusions: For measures to improve regulations on the prevention of suffocation accidents in Korea, I would like to propose three major measures to improve the system in the rules on domestic industrial safety and health standards. It is necessary to prepare and provide a guide to ensure that the 18 types of confined spaces currently defined as confined spaces are clearly understood by field management supervisors or workers.